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Labor Day weekend is summer’s last gasp. While it’s a good opportunity to fire up the grill one last time if the weather is good, you also get a three day weekend to catch up on movies and television you missed. Thanks to Netflix, you can sit at home all day to stream movies. September has offered a whole slew of new movies to watch, so here’s a look at 10 great movies to check out.
The only theme here is fun. Some of these might not be the greatest movies of all time, but they are worth checking out if you need a break from reality.
1. Jaws
There is no better summer movie than the film that invented the summer movie season, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws. No matter how many times you’ve seen the film, it will guarantee to shock you. Next time you watch it, try to picture Amity Island’s terrible mayor (played to the hilt by Murray Hamilton) as the real villain of the film. After all, he’s the one who wants people to spend July 4 weekend on his island even though there’s a giant shark around. Netflix also has the three Jaws sequels streaming if you’re interested in more shark mayhem.
2. Wet Hot American Summer
On the last weekend of summer, you might as well watch a movie about it. When the film, directed by David Wain, was first released, it was considered a disaster. Today, it is considered a cult classic and rightly so. The cast is great and it’s fun to see today’s comedy icons in their youth. The film has such a following that Netflix commissioned the prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day At Camp, which is even more bizarre than the film.
3. Footloose
Time to cut loose! The original 1984 Footloose isn’t a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but that killer soundtrack defined a generation, alongside Dirty Dancing. Both the title track and “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” were nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar, but lost to Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” from Gene Wilder’s The Woman in Red.
4. Big Trouble in Little China
If you’ve never experienced the mix of humor and action that is John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, there’s no better time to remedy that than right now. There’s no excuse for not seeing it before Dwayne Johnson’s pointless remake, if that ever happens.
5. In The Loop
The above video contains NSFW language because there’s no part of this movie where Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker character isn’t cursing. Armando Iannucci’s blistering political satire is like a prequel to HBO’s VEEP and also a bridge between that series and his beloved look at British politics, The Thick of It. Anna Chlumsky is seen playing a role that’s very similar to Amy on VEEP. The film also stars James Gandolfini and was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
6. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Still bummed out by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad? Well, if you want to watch a good movie based on DC Comics characters, check out Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which is based on Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s Flashpoint series. This is a very Flash-centric story, finding the Fastest Man Alive waking up one day to find everything changed. For example, Bruce Wayne is killed instead of his parents, inspiring Thomas Wayne to become Batman. Superman’s ship crashed in Metropolis instead of Smallville and he had been held captive by the government from the moment he landed. The Flash teams up with the new timeline’s heroes to stop the world’s destruction, only to learn the horrible reason for the change in events.
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Remember 2003 when Pirates of the Caribbean was just one movie that took the world by storm and not a four-movie (soon to be five-movie) series where each movie was longer than the last one? You can relive those days when Jack Sparrow was just another one of Johnny Depp’s oddball characters by watching The Curse of the Black Pearl. It’s a fun, action-packed spectacle, the kind of blockbuster people used to see before superheroes took over.
8. Back to the Future
You can binge-watch the entire Back to the Future trilogy on Netflix this weekend. You don’t need to be sold on that idea, right? Don’t be a butthead! Make like a tree and get out of here!
9. Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson’s ode to young love is a great way to finish off the summer. While the film has an all-star adult cast that includes Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Edward Norton, the child actors Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are the true stars. Their characters just want to be left alone to dance to French songs and read home-made books, if only the adults would let them.
10. To Catch a Thief
Netflix’s selection of classic Hollywood movies is severely lacking these days and the only Alfred Hitchcock film they have available now is perfect for the summer. If you want to spend two hours on the French Riviera with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, To Catch a Thief is the film to check out.
To find out what else you can watch on Netflix in September, click below!
